Jacksonville Looks for Win No. 2 in London Against Dallas
The AFC South Jacksonville Jaguars meet the NFC East Dallas Cowboys at Wembley Stadium in London, England Sunday afternoon. Tony Romo participated in practice this week for Dallas and it looks as if he will play on Sunday.
The current line in this match up has Dallas favored by 7 points with the point total sitting on 45.5.
Despite the uncertainty of Romo playing, the line has not moved that much during the week.
Dallas is 7-19 against the number over its past 26 games versus teams with losing records. The UNDER has cashed in 8 of the past 11 Cowboys games on natural grass.
The UNDER has cashed in 4 of the past 5 Jacksonville games. Over the past four games between the two, the OVER has cashed in each of the four games and the underdog has covered in 3 of the 4.
Cowboys fans hope Romo can play on Sunday after watching his replacement Brando Weeden pass for 183 yards and two interceptions last week in a loss to Arizona.
Jacksonville has looked at times like there are set to win a game, while other times they have punts and field goals blocked and interceptions being tossed by their rookie quarterback.
Jacksonville has only one victory all season, but their total has been an interesting watch from the perspective of a bettor. In the Jaguars first four games of the season, the defense was doing nothing right and the point total was 4-0 to the OVER.
However, since then, Jacksonville is 4-1 to the UNDER. In last week’s loss to Cincinnati, the total was OVER, but 27 points were scored during the last quarter. That period saw weird turnovers and mistakes on special teams.
The season-long stats for Jacksonville are deceiving as the defense since October has been different.
On offense, Blake Bortles came close last week to playing his first NFL game without throwing an interception, but he had a very costly one during the fourth quarterback in the end zone.
Last year Jacksonville was 0-7 when they headed to London to play against San Francisco. The Jaguars left London 0-8 after being routed by the 49ers 42-10. The total in that game ended OVER but that Jacksonville team was far worse than today’s team.
Jacksonville will be without Alan Ball their starting cornerback and Will Blackmon their nickel corner. Jeremiah George at linebacker and Brandon Linder a guard are both doubtful.
With both defenses not that strong, this game could be high scoring. If Romo is the starter, the line will go up and Dallas could easily score 35 points with their running attack led by DeMarco Murray and Romo’s presence under center.
Pick: I lean towards the OVER and Dallas covering the number.
